Biography

American singer and recording artist, the daughter of a Mexican physicist. In 1958 she dropped out of Boston University in order to sing and play guitar in coffee houses. Her LP, "Joan Baez," 1960, was one of the most successful female folk albums in history. With a voice resembling a silver flute, she stressed protest songs in the '60s. In 1965, she founded the Institute for the Study of Non-Violence.

Baez married David Harris on 3/26/1968; the following year he went to jail for 20 months for draft evasion. They had one son, Gabriel, and were divorced in 1973. Though she had a lesbian relationship at age 22 she does not consider herself in that category.

In the '70s and '80s, Baez was the self-appointed conscience of America, giving concerts and working for nonviolent political causes. She churned up a controversy when she traveled to North Vietnam. She visited refugee camps along the Thai border. She met with the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina. Overseas her music remained her passport whether she was singing Christmas carols in Hanoi or serenading Lech and Danuta Salesa on their sofa in Gdansk. But in America, her career waned. She was no longer timely.

Her autobiography came out in 1987, "And A Voice to Sing With." The memoir is honest enough to show her at less than flattering moments but is also marked by self-absorption, the occupational hazard of the famous.

In 1992 she released her album, "Play Me Backwards," and started on a world tour in October, managing her fear of flying better than ever before. For too long she has been long on respect and short on royalties. Her last album, "Speaking of Dreams," 1989, was earnest but mostly unheard. "Everything came so easy at 18," she said during an interview. As slender as always, her mane of dark hair is now salt-and-pepper and cut short.

Deathly afraid of flying, Baez has spent half of her life on airplanes traveling to another gig. In her 50s, her formerly clear, high singing voice had become a warm mezzo-soprano. Reinventing herself, she took singing lessons, hired a new manager and producer and recorded her new LP in Nashville.